Category Archives: Knowing Him

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July 17, 2018

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God's Grace & Love, Joy, Knowing Him, Nature, Thanks & Praise, Today: Make it Count

ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

Absarokas - Cody WyomingFor ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. [Romans 1:20 (NLT)]

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful: The Lord God made them all.
[“All Things Bright and Beautiful” by Cecil F. Alexander]

“When in doubt, trust your horse!” was the sign I’d seen earlier in the corral and so, as we slowly wended our way through the pinyon-juniper forest and up the mountain trail, I trusted my mount. After all, he didn’t want to fall down the ravine any more than did I. When we reached the ridge, I gasped—somewhat out of relief but more so out of wonder. The scenery was breathtaking! As I looked across the Wapiti Valley, I saw the incredible volcanic rock formations of the Absaroka Mountain Range and, when I looked down into the valley, I saw some of what Teddy Roosevelt called “The fifty most beautiful miles in America”. Surrounding us in the sage meadow on the ridge was an incredible array of wildflowers. An abundance of color, there were red Wyoming paintbrush, bright yellow mule’s ears and sunflowers, purple lupine, white snowbells, low pink bitterroot, tall green gentians, delicate bluebells, and a few pale yellow prickly pear cactus. Fritillaries and a white admiral red clover - beebutterfly flitted among the blossoms and a marmot peeked out from behind a rock. So as to not spook the horses or spoil the day for my fellow riders, I silently sang the chorus to All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Only able to remember the hymn’s chorus, I looked up the lyrics when I got home. The author is Cecil F. Alexander. An Irish woman known as Fanny to her friends and family, she lived in the mid-19th century and was married to a clergyman. It is said that she based her hymn on the words of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth.” She easily could have been inspired by Psalms 19 or 104. I doubt she ever visited a ranch in Wyoming so she wasn’t thinking of the Absarokas and a colorful mountain meadow. Nevertheless, I imagine the Irish countryside can be just as extraordinary; perhaps Fanny’s inspiration came from visiting some place like Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher where she stood in awe of God’s handiwork.

I couldn’t help but think of the Apostle Paul’s words in the first chapter of Romans; we see evidence of God everywhere in His amazing creation and there is no excuse for denying His existence or not knowing Him. It doesn’t have to be majestic mountains and spectacular scenery; God’s workmanship is just as evident in our backyards in the exquisiteness of things like red clover and the wings of a bumblebee. Indeed, “How great is God Almighty, who has made all things well!”

Each little flow’r that opens, Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings.
The purple-headed mountains, The river running by,
The sunset and the morning That brightens up the sky. …
He gave us eyes to see them, And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty, Who has made all things well.
[“All Things Bright and Beautiful” by Cecil F. Alexander]

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. [Psalm 19:1-4 (NLT)]

O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. [Psalm 104:24 (NLT)]

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July 16, 2018

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God's Promises, Knowing Him, Nature, Peace of God

UNCHANGING

Look up at the skies, ponder the earth under your feet. The skies will fade out like smoke, the earth will wear out like work pants, and the people will die off like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my setting-things-right will never be obsolete. [Isaiah 51:6 (MSG)]

Dragon's mouth springs - Mammoth Hot springs - yellowstone

The unstable, ever-changing, and even violent nature of this world in which we live is evident throughout Yellowstone Park. It’s disconcerting to see hot mud shoot out of a cavern, to smell sulphur and feel the hot spray as a geyser erupts, and to stand in the steam and hear the booming belch as water surges out of a hot spring. Yellowstone is actually a super-volcano that last erupted some 640,000 years ago and smaller eruptions of lava have occurred as recently (geologically speaking) as 70,000 years ago. The park is what geologist Robert Smith calls “a living, breathing, shaking, baking, caldera,” and those geothermal wonders that attract visitors are fueled by magma as hot as 1,500 degrees that lies just a few miles beneath the earth’s surface.

The abundant geothermal activity and the 1,000 to 3,000 small earthquakes that occur there every year mean that the park is always changing. For example, when my husband visited the park as a boy, there was no Quake Lake west of Yellowstone and the Steamboat Geyser had been dormant for nearly fifty years. A massive earthquake in 1959 created the lake and the geyser awoke in 1961. Since then, it’s been erratic in its activity but, after four years of dormancy, it began erupting again in March of this year. Shooting nearly boiling water up 345 feet, it has erupted ten times since then. The travertine terraces of Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs are like living sculptures and continually change shape as over 500 gallons of hot water are discharged every minute and two tons of calcium carbonate are deposited there every day. Even the beautiful Yellowstone canyon, the result of wind, water and earthquakes, speaks of change as the Yellowstone River continues to erode the bedrock. Fire also has changed the landscape; over 70,000 acres of lush forest that existed when we visited there a few years ago became nothing but charred remains in 2016.

In Yellowstone’s dynamic and unsettled landscape, even the ground around the thermal features is unstable and can collapse. Then again, you don’t need to be in Yellowstone to realize how nature is an unpredictable, ever-changing, and often dangerous force. That Thai soccer team discovered how quickly a dry cave can fill with water in a flash flood, residents on the island of Hawaii saw their lives change in May when Kilauea began erupting and sent lava over the streets and through their neighborhoods. Texans, Floridians, and Puerto Ricans certainly can attest to the power of last year’s hurricanes. Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, floods, drought, earthquakes, hail, thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions, blizzards, avalanches, sinkholes, lightning and fire: we all are vulnerable to disaster from the changing and volatile nature of this world in which we live.

Yellowstone is a vivid reminder of how the forces of nature can change the world as we know it: rock erodes, mountains crumble, geysers appear and disappear, volcanoes erupt, forests burn and ground can collapse. I take comfort in the knowledge that, while nothing in this world is constant and forever, God remains our everlasting and unchanging bedrock. The same yesterday, today, and forever, He is our firm foundation.

Consider what you owe to His immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once. [Charles Spurgeon]

I love you, God—you make me strong. God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight. My God—the high crag where I run for dear life, hiding behind the boulders, safe in the granite hideout. I sing to God, the Praise-Lofty, and find myself safe and saved. [Psalm 18:1-3 (MSG)]

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July 13, 2018

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Bible Stories, God's Plan, God's Word: The Bible, Knowing Him, Nature, Trusting God

UNIMAGINABLE  BUT TRUE

Then the rich man said, “O Father Abraham, then please send him to my father’s home—for I have five brothers—to warn them about this place of torment lest they come here when they die.” But Abraham said, “The Scriptures have warned them again and again. Your brothers can read them any time they want to.” The rich man replied, “No, Father Abraham, they won’t bother to read them. But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will turn from their sins.” But Abraham said, “If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even though someone rises from the dead.” [Luke 16:27-31 (TLB)]

A land of contradictions, a spectacular pageant, a world incomprehensible…a wonderful gift to men from a benign God—all this and more. [Olin Wheeler, 1914]

lion geyser - grand canyon of yellowstone

Although Native Americans have existed in the Yellowstone area for as long as 11,000 years, it took three major expeditions before the American public finally believed that the wonders in what is now Yellowstone National Park actually existed. The earlier descriptions of “fire and brimstone,” huge waterfalls, exploding geysers, boiling mud pots and other strange features of the region were met with unbelief until William Jackson’s photographs and Thomas Moran’s paintings from their 1871 Yellowstone expedition were presented to Congress. Once people had visual proof of the area’s bizarre geothermal wonders, they finally believed and Yellowstone became our nation’s first national park.

Indeed, having recently toured this park that sits on atop of the largest super-volcano in North America, I can understand how unbelievable those first mountain men’s stories must have seemed. In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have imagined either the beauty or the strangeness of Yellowstone—colored travertine terraces, mud volcanos, steaming caves, a 24-mile long canyon, over 200 waterfalls, and more than 10,000 geysers and hot springs. Other worldly, it is something that truly must be seen to be believed.

Jesus told the Pharisees a parable about two men: the unrighteous rich man who died and went to a place of torment and the beggar Lazarus who died and went to a heavenly banquet. The rich man wanted to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers to change their ways. His request was denied since, like him, his brothers had ignored the warnings found in the Law and the Prophets so they wouldn’t be convinced by someone returning from the dead. Indeed, even though Jesus did return from the dead, there are many who do not believe.

We often wonder what heaven and/or hell will be like. Jesus didn’t mince any words when he spoke of the final judgment and it doesn’t sound pleasant. When the Apostle John was given a glimpse of heaven, his words in Revelation seem almost as incomprehensible to us as the words the mountain men used to describe Yellowstone’s bubbling mud pots and hissing fumaroles were to nineteenth century Americans. Father Abraham didn’t send back Lazarus and no one is going to return from death with photographs or paintings to prove what happens when we take our last breath.

Words can’t adequately describe Yellowstone and the few Biblical descriptions of both heaven and hell don’t do them justice, either. Nevertheless, like the rich man’s brothers, we have all the information we need in Scripture. As the American public learned in 1871, just because we can’t imagine something doesn’t mean it isn’t there!

Just as in this story the thistles are separated and burned, so shall it be at the end of the world: I will send my angels, and they will separate out of the Kingdom every temptation and all who are evil, and throw them into the furnace and burn them. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the godly shall shine as the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Let those with ears, listen! [Matthew 13:40-43 (TLB)]

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June 20, 2018

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Bible Stories, God's Grace & Love, Knowing Him, Obedience, Salvation: A New You, Thanks & Praise

THE PRICE IS RIGHT (Naaman – Part 2)

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian. [Luke 4:27 (NCV)]

Fish Creek Falls - SteamboatA friend of ours has several jewelry stores in Colorado. When he opened a store in a posh resort town, he priced his goods as he always has: reasonably. To his chagrin, plenty of wealthy shoppers came into his shop but no purchases were made. After three days of disappointment, he re-tagged everything with higher prices. The following day, instead of leaving empty-handed, most shoppers left carrying pricy purchases (and they continue to do so today). Apparently, his rich customers believe affordable means second-rate or shoddy and that quality only comes with an exorbitant price tag.

When Naaman, the commander of the king of Aram’s army, was afflicted with leprosy, he was told that a prophet in Samaria could heal him. Rather than go to the prophet, he went to Israel’s king and offered 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing for a cure. The king, of course, could do nothing for the man but Elisha sent a message requesting the leper be sent to him. Rather than the prophet, it was Elisha’s messenger who greeted him with instructions to wash in the Jordan River seven times. A celebrated warrior, Naaman expected an impressive cure, if not from the king, at least from the prophet himself—not a servant’s directions to bathe in a dirty little river. Failing to understand how washing in the Jordan would heal him when the great rivers of Damascus couldn’t, Naaman left in indignation. When his officers convinced him to give the simple solution a try, he was miraculously healed and Naaman returned to Elisha. Convinced in the power of Israel’s God, he offered the prophet the lavish gifts brought from Aram. Elisha politely refused; God’s grace was not for sale!

Are we a little like those wealthy Colorado shoppers or Naaman? Do we tend to associate an item’s worth with its price tag, rarity, or the complexity of getting it? Let’s not make that mistake with God’s gift of grace; it’s free and incredibly simple to receive! Jesus has already paid for our salvation; it’s ours just for the asking and washing in the water of the Spirit is even easier than washing in the Jordan. Nevertheless, while grace is free, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer points out, grace is never cheap!

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. … Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again…It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life…what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. [ Dietrich Bonhoeffer]

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. [Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT)]

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June 12, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Forgiveness, Fruit of the Spirit, God's Grace & Love, God's Promises, Knowing Him, Peace of God, Salvation: A New You

IN THE DARK

And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. [John 3:19-20 (NLT)]

sunriseAlthough demons had no trouble recognizing Jesus, the people who were most knowledgeable about Scripture and best knew the Messianic prophecies often seemed blind to what was before them. In fact, even after hearing Jesus speak and watching Him heal, the Pharisees and scribes accused Him of being a demon. Why did they refuse to see what was right in front of them?

Of the people who recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah, only a few were what would have been called religious. The devout Simeon and Anna knew the Messiah when Jesus came to the temple as a baby yet, twelve years later, no one in the temple recognized Him as anything more than a perceptive intelligent boy. Most of the others who recognized Jesus were secular people who knew they were flawed and in need of Him: the woman at the well, the Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter, the prostitute who washed His feet, the blind Bartimaeus, the corrupt publicans Zacchaeus and Matthew, Mary Magdalene, the lepers, the adulterous woman, and the paralyzed man and his friends. On that dark Friday, rather than a religious scholar, it was one of the Roman soldiers who’d nailed Jesus to the cross and a thief hanging beside Him who testified to His true identity.

Just as sunlight reveals fingerprints on the window and dust on the table, the Light of the World revealed the sins of the world. Without light, a zircon can pretend to be a diamond, stainless can pass for sterling, and a designer knock-off can be mistaken for the real thing. In the darkness, hypocrisy, deceit and legalism can pass for righteousness, morality and piety. Until it recognizes what it actually is, corruption can call itself integrity, wickedness can say it’s virtue, and arrogance can profess humility. Those unwilling to see their own sinfulness and need for salvation rejected Jesus—the one without sin. Not wanting to see what the Light revealed, they chose to remain in the dark. Those who admitted their sins knew they were in the dark and welcomed the Light. Recognizing their need for Jesus, they accepted Him and received healing, mercy, forgiveness, and everlasting life.

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” [John 8:12 (NLT)]

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. [John 1:10-12 (NLT)]

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June 1, 2018

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Church & Worship, God's Grace & Love, Holy Spirit, Knowing Him, Nature, Thanks & Praise

PICTURING GOD

sunriseAfter his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” [Matthew 3:16-17 (NLT)]

 A little boy was busy with his crayons and a large sheet of paper. When his mother asked what he was drawing, he proudly answered, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The mother tried to explain: “But sweetie, no one has seen God so we don’t know how he looks.” Smiling proudly, the boy continued coloring and reassured his mom. “Well, they will when I get done!”

That story reminded me of last Sunday’s sermon. In honor of Trinity Sunday, our pastor asked us how we picture God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Had there been any children present, I wouldn’t have been surprised if one had described him as an old gentleman with a flowing beard, wearing a white robe, and sitting on a golden throne. Actually, I was a little surprised that no one said they picture God as Morgan Freeman, George Burns, or even Octavia Spencer. Instead, people shared how they saw or felt God’s presence in things like babies, sunrises, rainbows, and sunsets.

When asked about Jesus, no one described the man who walked the dusty roads of Judea, wept at the tomb of Lazarus, or reassured the doubting Thomas. Instead, they spoke of seeing Jesus in actions like love, sharing, forgiveness, service, and sacrifice. As for the Holy Spirit, people described hearing His still small voice in things like insight, inner conviction or experiencing a compelling force.

Our assignment for the week was to become more aware of our triune God’s presence in our lives. Early Tuesday morning, my husband called to me while I was reading Scripture in my windowless office. When I looked out the east facing window I understood his urgent call: the sunrise was absolutely majestic. As our Creator God announced Himself, remembering Sunday’s sermon, I responded to God’s proclamation by finishing my prayers on the deck while watching the sun rise. The show in the sky was accompanied by a heavenly chorus of robins, wrens, sparrows and cardinals. Our Triune God made His presence known and felt.

I had a pastor who used to start her morning prayer with, “Good morning, Lord. It’s so nice to see your face.” I hadn’t thought about the fact that she was looking out at the congregation when she said those words. Indeed, she was seeing God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in the sea of faces before her. We are, after all, made in His image, saved by His blood, and filled with His Spirit.

As for that little boy’s picture: I don’t know if he drew a grandfather, a sunset, a long-haired man in robe and sandals, a hospice volunteer, a breeze, or a dove descending from the sky. Perhaps he drew Jesus’ baptism when all three of the Godhead were present. The youngster is probably too young to understand the Trinity but I hope, in his own unique way, he found a way to incorporate three beautiful images into one. Praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. [2 Corinthians 13:14 (NLT)]

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. [Matthew 28:19 (NLT)]

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